3.6 million people have now signed a petition for a second EU referendum

A Parliamentary petition calling for a second EU referendum has garnered more than 3.6 million signatures since going live yesterday. The page temporarily crashed due to "exceptionally high" traffic, which a House of Commons spokeswoman said was "significantly higher than on any previous occasion".

The petition was set up by William Oliver Healey, who states: "We the undersigned call upon HM government to implement a rule that if the remain or leave vote is less than 60% based on a turnout less than 75%, there should be another referendum."

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Ironically, however, it has recently emerged that Healey is actually a firm Leave voter, and wasn't even on the Remain side. The English Democrat member posted on Facebook to clarify that he'd set the petition up in May in anticipation of a Remain win, and complains that the page has been "hijacked" by the Remain campaign.

It has since become the most signed petition ever to have existed since the current online system was introduced back in 2011. It monumentally overshadows other previously popular petitions such as the consideration of a vote of no confidence in health secretary Jeremy Hunt, which received 336,000 signatures.

And the petition comes after 51.9% voters opted to leave the EU on Thursday, with 48.1% voting to remain on a turn-out of 72%. Meanwhile, Google trends reported a huge spike in the number of people asking 'What happens if we leave the EU?', after the polls had closed. Google also stated that 'What is the EU?' was the second top question on the EU after the results were announced yesterday.

On the petition, it says that "Parliament considers all petitions that get more than 100,000 signatures for a debate", and this particular page far exceeds that number. The petitions committee decides whether a petition should be raised in the House, and the committee is due to sit again on Tuesday. In the meantime, signatures continue to be added.

However many signatures this petition reaches, though, it's looking pretty unlikely that a second referendum will actually be held. Both France and Germany have publicly announced that they're in agreement that Britain's departure from the EU should occur as quickly as possible - with no informal negotiations necessary.

Having said that, before Article 50 is invoked - the procedure necessary for Britain to leave the EU - it has to pass through the Houses of Parliament. While the Leave side came out on top of the referendum, theoretically it could be possible for MPs and the House of Lords to go against the population's decision and opt to Remain after all. However, it's unclear how likely this would actually be to happen, given the potential backlash from Leave voters and for the sake of democracy.

So we'll see what happens in tomorrow's petitions committee meeting...

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